Hormone therapy
Different hormone therapy drugs cause different side effects.
This page tells you about some of the side effects that hormone therapy may cause. Your healthcare team will tell you about specific side effects of your own treatment.
It’s important to remember that you probably won't get every side effect listed, everyone is different.
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Hormone therapy changes the balance of hormones in your body. This can cause breast tissue to grow. This is called gynaecomastia.
Swelling can happen in either one or both breasts. It may be painful. It starts as fatty tissue. But it can develop into thicker (dense) tissue.
You might have a hormone therapy called tamoxifen to help with this. Or you might have a small dose of radiotherapy before treatment starts.
Find out more about gynaecomastia
Men taking hormone therapy for prostate cancer are at risk of bone thinning (osteoporosis). How much bone thinning you might have varies from person to person. Not all hormone treatments cause bone loss.
Your doctor may suggest taking vitamin D and calcium to help lower your risk of problems from osteoporosis.
It might help to:
stop smoking
only drink alcohol within recommended limits
take regular weight bearing exercise, such as walking
Find out more about bone thinning and hormone therapy
Hormone therapy for prostate cancer might increase the risk of heart problems and diabetes. This may partly be because lower testosterone levels can increase the amount of fats (cholesterol) and sugar (glucose) in your blood.
Read more about hormone therapy, heart disease and diabetes
Last reviewed: 06 Feb 2024
Next review due: 05 Feb 2027
Some cancers use hormones to grow or develop. Hormone therapy works by blocking or lowering the amount of these hormones.
Hormone therapy for prostate cancer can affect the levels of your hormones. This can cause different side effects including hot flushes, swollen breasts, sleep disturbances and weight changes.
There are many cancer drugs, cancer drug combinations and they have individual side effects.
Search for the cancer type you want to find out about. Each section has detailed information about symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, research and coping with cancer.
Hormone therapy blocks or lowers the amount of hormones in the body to stop or slow down the growth of cancer.
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